Carmella Ann Schultes

Isabelle's Upstairs Coffee Shop Carmella Ann Schultes

The perfect storm has been brewing for over 30 years for Isabelle Potts, a liberal feminist in a conservative faith based community in northwest Iowa. As it comes to a head in the political climate of 2016 she is only able to find some sanity and hope because of a private coffee shop which she opens in her desperate attempt to find her community. As the reader meets the members of the coffee shop, the importance of its privacy and obscurity to the small group of liberal outcasts in the fictional town of Lakeview Iowa, whose congressional representative is openly racist casting a national spotlight on their community, will become apparent. Isabelle's loneliness and fear of never escaping Lakeview plays out as a stream of consciousness to which the reader is privy. Will her resourcefulness and the dream she shares with two of her coffee shop members show Isabelle a path forward? Will she discover that resilience and resourcefulness will continue to be her strength and give her hope? Or will Isabelle finally lose herself?